Hear us Roar

This week the podcast welcomes Melora Fern (Whistling Women and Crowing Hens, Sibylline Digital First, May 2025). Making what she calls "an audacious leap", Melora moved from being an accountant to being a writer with her debut novel which features not one, but three, fascinating subjects: artistic whistlers, the Jazz Age of the 1920's, and the Chautauqua Circuit (the TED talks of the early 20th century). We discuss the vital role both critique groups and on-line classes played in her pivot and how she now gives back through teaching writing at her local library. "If you work hard and take it seriously, you can learn the craft of writing."
The only constant in life is change – so after a year of multiple doozies, Melora moved from Texas to North Carolina to become herself. Growing up as the perpetual "new kid" she persevered by making up stories and recently learned how to hone that skill into writing fiction. As a recovering CPA, she now counts seashells, colorful stones, or words discovered on her walks. After nine years of perfecting her craft with writing classes, workshops, retreats, and an awe-inspiring critique group, Melora's months of querying agents and small presses paid off. She's currently working on her second novel, volunteer teaching beginners writing classes at local libraries and is a founding member for Word on The Street NC, a Literary Arts Festival scheduled for March 2027 in Hillsborough, NC.
To learn more about Melora, click here.

Our podcast guest this week is Alexandria Faulkenbury (Somewhere Past The End, Apprentice House Press at Loyola University, Baltimore, May 2025). Alexandria explains what it's like to work with a university-based teaching press where professors supervise college students studying aspects of publishing while working on your book, including in editing, graphic design, and marketing. We then discuss how she used her selection for The Debutante Ball cohort to not only share the emotional ups and downs of launching a debut with seven other newbies, but also marketing ideas and even an introduction that led her to an agent. Finally Alexandria shares how to plan a successful book tour.
 
Alexandria Faulkenbury is the author of Somewhere Past the End, a 2025 Foreword Indies Book of the Year Gold Medal Winner. She holds an M.A. in multicultural and transnational literature from East Carolina University and teaches English at Midlands Technical College. Her writing has been featured in MER Literary and The Maine Review, among others. When she's not writing, you can find her reading, tap dancing, knitting, or grading papers. Originally from Texas, she now lives in South Carolina with her husband, two rambunctious kids, and one ornery dog.
To learn more about Alexandria, click here.

This week we welcome Julie Wise, a Canadian author (Make No Mistake: The Novel, indie published, May 2025) to discuss her debut featuring older women activists which one reader called "The Handmaid's Tale with a Molotov cocktail twist." We discuss what it's like when you novel's plot becomes reality and then we do a deep-dive into how Julie used the social media app Substack to first release her book in serial form,  and later used its podcast function to produce her audio book. If you've ever wondered whether Substack is worth it, give this one a listen.
 
Julie Wise (she/her) is a writer from the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Her poetry and prose have appeared in multiple publications as well as four anthologies. She is the author of Dream Bigger: Reclaiming A Life of Joy and Ease (2010), Make No Mistake: The Novel (2025) and writes Glimmers From The Edge on Substack.
To follow Julie on Instagram, click here.
To learn more about Julie, click here.

This week our guest is Joan Fernandez (Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh, She Writes Press, April 2025). We talk about what happened when a competing book about Jo from the prestigious Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam came out right when Joan was ready to query, how her read 900 letters from Vincent for research, and how she's still marketing her novel 18 months after launch. And listen for our interesting talk about how Jo used modern marketing techniques like FOMO, 2 for one, and hometown advantage to get Vincent's artwork into the world.
 
 
Joan Fernandez is a historical novelist and public speaker recovering the stories of women written out of the historical record. She is author of Saving Vincent: A Novel of Jo van Gogh, whose twelve book awards and honors include First Place for the Missouri Writers Guild's Walter Williams Major Work Award and is rated 4.7 stars in Amazon reviews. She is a former Principal and general partner at Edward Jones, where she spent twenty-two years in marketing and communications centered on translating specialist research for general audiences — the same work, in a different subject, that shapes her presentations today. 
To learn more about Joan, click here.

This week we welcome Meg Hamand to the podcast (Diamonds in Auschwitz, Greenleaf Publishing, March 2025). We discuss the books that kept her sane while writing about a horrific period in history while living through another (COVID), how she writes her first draft straight through without looking back, and how going with a hybrid publisher was a mini-course in learning about the publishing industry. We then talk about setting realistic goals for your career and how you don't necessarily have to say yes to the first person that says yes to you, be they an agent, a publicist, or a publisher.
 
Diamonds in Auschwitz was cited as "a significant contribution to Holocaust literature" by Readers' Favorite and was an Amazon Bestseller and a #1 New Release. It was awarded second place in Women's Historical Fiction by The BookFest, first place in Historical Fiction by Firebird Book Awards, and the Prodigy (Best Debut Novel) Award from StoryTrade Awards.
 
Meg has had a heart for storytelling since her first publication in elementary school. She graduated summa cum laude from Indiana State University with a degree in English and creative writing and has an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan. She lives in Plymouth, Indiana with her husband/high school sweetheart and their 15-year-old daughter (also an aspiring artist).
To learn more about Meg, click here.